Antiquitopia

The serpent sets the tone--seductive but also rousing. In none of its appearances is its image simple. It bears poison within itself, but on the Aesculapian staff, healing. It is the dragon of the abyss, but, at another moment, the lightning high-above. And long after it is meant to have brought sorrow on our first parents, the sight of the serpent-idol held aloft heals the children of Israel from leprosy. Nor did it tell lies, as befitted the most cunning of all the beasts of the field, at least not in the most important point of its promise. For it promised Adam he would be like God; and when Yahweh saw him afterwards he said, "Behold, the man is become like one of us, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3.22). What sort of sin is that, wanting to be like God and to know good and evil? So far is it from being unambiguous, indeed from being sin at all, that countless pious people from that time on would most likely have taken unwillingness to be like God as the original sin...

The NYTimes reports on a new play about Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine, with lackluster review: June 10, 2009 THEATER REVIEW | 'ASCLEPIUS' Dramatizing a Greek Tale Seldom Told By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO Before her new play, “Asclepius,” opened a few weeks ago, Ellen Stewart said a few words to the adoring audience at La MaMa, which she founded in 1961 and of which she is still the artistic director. Ms. Stewart, who is in fragile health, requiring a wheelchair and an oxygen tank, announced that next year, for the first time, the National Endowment for the Arts would not be supporting La MaMa’s resident troupe, the Great Jones Repertory Company. The reason, she said, was, “I couldn’t explain why I do the Greek plays.” Ms. Stewart, whose adaptations of the Greeks include “Herakles via Phaedra” and “Antigone,” has now written what she says is the first play ever about Asclepius, the son of Apollo and the god of medicine. There is rich material to be mined, particularly in these adv...

If you study antiquity for any length of time, you'll realize that the ancients had a fascination with serpents. Not just with the cunning serpent in Gen. 3, but throughout all ancient cultures with multiple responses: they were ambivalent creatures, capable of death and rejuvenation at the same time. One might remember in the Epic of Gilgamesh how a serpent stole the plant that gives the power of rejuvenation from Gilgamesh. They were the symbol of Asklepios (Lat. Aesculapius), the god of healing, and, in fact, remain a symbol of medicine to this very day (the serpent around the staff). In fact, if you go to my academic bio page on the right, you'll see me standing next to Asklepios at his great sanctuary in Epidauros. They were symbols of the chthonic gods--the Furies, for example, have serpentine qualities and inhabit the area beneath the Acropolis in Athens. One might notice that Athene often has serpentine imagery. The fringes of her robes in her statues in Athens ...